Oriental Bloom, Sector 29, Gurgaon

 

[Rated: 2.5/5]

The Oriental Bloom serves variety of Dimsum and other Oriental cuisine, in a newly opened and modestly sized restaurant accommodating over 50 guests. The chick-modern setting done in hues of red and dark teak food finish gives it a rich feel.

Though on weekends it offers lunch buffet consisting of soup, unlimited dimsum, and a dessert, but we decided to order ala-carte. The first look at the menu, and we couldn’t help but notice that like many novice, restaurant also refers Dimsum as ‘Dimsums’; they better know like ‘hair’ one can not use an ‘s’ to make it a plural.

We had a mixed reaction on food. The Prawn and Cilantro Dumpling (235) came with the wrapper coming off which was an immediate turn-off, though it was well spiced and the prawns were cooked to the perfection. We did not appreciate the harder-than-normal Chicken Suimai (175) but we loved the Chicken Moneybag (175) which was thin and crisp from outside and soft and juicy from inside; just the way it should be.

Prawn and Cilantro Dumpling

Chicken Suimai

Chicken Moneybag

The Tom Yum Prawn soup (155) was hot and flavorful while Fish Finger Szchuan Coat (275) neither had a body or the soul. It tasted less like a fish and more like a potato. The main course thankfully was nice consisting of Chicken Hakka Noodles (165), Prawn Nasi Goreng (335) and Fish Ginger Chilly Sauce (345). Each of these dishes was as good as you could get in India. But desserts disappointed once again. Chocolate ice cream roll (165) had dripping oil; indicating use of sub-hot oil for frying. We couldn’t help an extra serving of vanilla ice-cream from the Honey Glazed noodles served with ice-cream (165)

Tom Yum

Fish Finger Schezuan Coat

Prawn Nasi Goreng

Chocolate Roll

More than the food we were disappointed on the service levels. The drink menu wasn’t served, we kept looking for the server to order food, no serving spoon was on the table to serve Kimchi and non-clearance of plates peeved us no end in a restaurant which takes service charge from its customers. This restaurant had everything going wrong on service which could including slow delivery of dishes. Adding to it, duck wasn’t available and the grill didn’t function the day we visited. Surprisingly, restaurant doesn’t even mention the percentage of service charge it would levy on the bill.

With variety of options in this market, it would be hard for the restaurant to find its feet if it doesn’t act fast.

Ratings out of 5

Food: 2.0 | Ambience: 3.5 | Service: 1.5 | Overall: 2.5

Meal for Two: Rs1500 | Alcohol: Yes | Credit Card: Yes|

Weekend Buffet: Rs 495 (Veg), Rs 595 (Chicken) and Rs 695 (Shellfish)

Address: SCO 39, Ground Floor (Below Gola Sizzler), Sector 29, Gurgaon | Phone: 0124-4019616

- Pawan Soni

This article was first published in Suburb Magazine, Gurgaon